Keane re-release debut album as Deluxe double CD
On 10th May 2004 Island Records released the UK’s No.1, biggest selling album of the year ‘Hopes and Fears’, selling over 5.8 million copies worldwide, and garnering two Brit Awards. The album was also voted one of the “Best British Albums” ever in a Q Magazine/HMV poll, the first of two Keane albums to feature in the Top 20*.
Over the course of ten years as an unsigned band, Keane had written what was to become one of the classic albums of our time, and one of the last multi-million selling albums of this generation. The emotion of the record gave a voice to millions, bringing the focus back to British talent at a time when the landscape was awash with new bands from across the Atlantic. It marked a triumph for the three boys from Battle in East Sussex and reaped an in 2004 reaped the song writing talent of Rice-Oxley an Ivor Novello for Best Compose of the Year.
‘Hopes and Fears: Deluxe’ marks the final and flagship release of the Island 50 classics re-released.
In addition to the original tracklisting the deluxe album showcases previously un-released and rare material including early demo ‘Into The Light’, recordings from the band’s earliest Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley radio sessions, the b-side and fan favourite, ‘Snowed Under’ (from ‘Somewhere Only We Know’), and their debut self released singles.
The sleeve notes have been penned by long-time supporter Steve Lamacq where he describes the first time he caught them at the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, “there were only three of them but they sounded huge. They were independent of mind but definitely accessible”.